Mapping Covid-19 Governance in Lebanon: Territories of Sectarianism and Solidarity
In: Middle East Law and GovernanceSearch for other papers by Mona Harb in
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Abstract
Many states, including Lebanon, have used the Covid-19 pandemic as an occasion to reassert their power and to consolidate their policing and repressive apparatuses. We are far from a seamless scenario, however. Rather than a mere reproduction of the sectarian political system, we argue in this paper that the governance of the pandemic in Lebanon reveals tensions between powerful political parties, weakened public agencies, as well as multiple solidarity groups with diverging aspirations, colliding over the imagined future of the country. Using various sources of information (broadcast, print and online news media, social media), we build a database of the types of actors and the categories of actions across locations, and analyze the territorial and political variations of the governance of the pandemic. The paper demonstrates that the Covid-19 response in Lebanon operates through ongoing negotiations over the national territory in which timid yet visible aspirations for a non-sectarian country confront sectarian territorialities through back-and-forth cycles.
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| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
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Mapping Covid-19 Governance in Lebanon: Territories of Sectarianism and Solidarity
In: Middle East Law and GovernanceSearch for other papers by Mona Harb in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Ahmad Gharbieh in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Mona Fawaz in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Luna Dayekh in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
Many states, including Lebanon, have used the Covid-19 pandemic as an occasion to reassert their power and to consolidate their policing and repressive apparatuses. We are far from a seamless scenario, however. Rather than a mere reproduction of the sectarian political system, we argue in this paper that the governance of the pandemic in Lebanon reveals tensions between powerful political parties, weakened public agencies, as well as multiple solidarity groups with diverging aspirations, colliding over the imagined future of the country. Using various sources of information (broadcast, print and online news media, social media), we build a database of the types of actors and the categories of actions across locations, and analyze the territorial and political variations of the governance of the pandemic. The paper demonstrates that the Covid-19 response in Lebanon operates through ongoing negotiations over the national territory in which timid yet visible aspirations for a non-sectarian country confront sectarian territorialities through back-and-forth cycles.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1446 | 303 | 23 |
| Full Text Views | 222 | 24 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 441 | 42 | 0 |